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The film begins with the classic brief story scrolling upwards, telling you about Masakado Taira who was branded a traitor and executed about a thousand years ago for trying to develop a nation in the middle of Japan and failing. He ended up being buried in Tokyo. Later on Masakado become a figure of worship, revered as a kind guardian to many. However terrible things ended up occurring every time his grave was disturbed. Lessons would teach many to leave his grave undisturbed to avoid the consequences. So for years it remained untouched until 1912 where we are introduced to the stories villain Yasunori Kato, a renegade mystic (that bears a strong resemblance to M.Bison from Street Fighter) who is hell bent on awakening the spirit of Masakado to unleash an attack that would bring Tokyo to its knees in devastation in hopes to revive Tokyo back to untainted holy land. Once the story progresses and Kato is set into a place of attack upon those who are helping with development on the megalopolis, everything then descends into chaos. The attacks are mostly through Onmyoji magic which is an esoteric mix of Chinese Taoist magic fused with Japanese Shinto/animism. After the attack we get better introduced to the core cast of the film with Yukari Tatsumiya (Haruka Sugata), a descendant of Masakado who is psychically impregnated by Kato. This scene is an almost watered down version of the infamous severed head scene towards the end of re-animator except with Kato’s severed hand. Her brother, Yoichiro (Jun'ichi Ishida), who helps by placing protective statues at key sites around the city, His friend, Junichi Narutaki (Shiro Sano), who secretly loves Yukari but is separated from her following Kato's intervention. Doctor Ogai Mori (Katsuo Nakamura) and swordsman Rohan Koda (Koji Takahashi) are forced to accept and confront the supernatural. Keiko (Meiko Harada), a psychic warrior who marries Yoichiro in order to fulfil a mystical prophecy with the hopes that they might become a real couple if she survives the final confrontation with Kato. Professor Torahiko Terada (Ken Teraizuma), who wishes to create an underground city: but instead has to settle on building Tokyo's underground railway system. Later on in the film Professor Terada must enlist the help of a super robot called Gakutensoku to help finish the underground railway which is being ruined by demons. This leads up to the final scene in which everything boils down to one final showdown to stop Kato from awakening Masakado. A presence of special features could have greatly benefited this release giving people such as myself who are unfamiliar with this film a lesson in movies associated with it and other work that director Takashige Ichise who has used his directorial talents in films such as Dark Water, Ringu and Ju-On all of which have been re-made for the American market. The film holds nothing in the special feature section except for some previews of upcoming releases by the company that released this DVD. One thing I admire about this film is its ability to infuse so much into a story that takes place in such a simple time era where technology was not that advanced. You have demons which in the film often times take shape in the form of Claymation that is similar to that in Evil Dead & Dead Alive, with stop motion goodness only the eighties could provide that also goes along with the other form they take, like rubbery hand puppets yanked from the set of Ghoulies. There are spheres that attack near the end that have a strong resemblance to those in Phantasm and a large six-armed monster that looks like it stormed into the movie from Clash of the Titans. Amidst a bit of confusion as to who truly is evil in the film, is it Kato who wants to remove the technological ever growing and ever evolving virus-like plague of humanity that is ruining the holy lands? Or is it the architects and leaders who want to further Tokyo’s development? The best way to find the answer yourself is to watch and come to your own conclusion. -derek-
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